1915–1973 · British-American philosopher & interpreter of Zen for the West
Alan Watts was born in Chislehurst, Kent, in 1915 and became a U.S. citizen in 1943. Holding a master’s degree in theology and a doctorate of divinity, he made his name interpreting Zen Buddhism and Chinese and Indian philosophy for Western readers, writing some twenty books — among them The Wisdom of Insecurity (1951) and the bestselling The Way of Zen (1957). A prolific lecturer and broadcaster who called himself a “philosophical entertainer,” he became a fixture of the American counterculture before his death in Marin County, California, in 1973.